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4.44 AVERAGE
4.44 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
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So glad I finally got to this one, I kinda feel like David Foster Wallace grabbed me by both ears and shook my skull until the nonsense separated from the sense and then he skimmed off the nonsense with a ladle
“‘Learning how to think’ really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.”
This is a quick little book of excerpts from the only commencement address DFW ever gave. Worth a read!
This is a quick little book of excerpts from the only commencement address DFW ever gave. Worth a read!
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Listening to the audiobook of This Is Water after graduating from college was a weird but rewarding experience. When I first heard about it, it was through an animated, abridged version of the speech that someone posted on Reddit two years ago. A lot of the sentiment at the time was that the shortened version missed most of the point of the speech, and cut out all the juicy philosophical stuff for a more #relatable, more viral video. I remember then reading it a while after, and not remembering any of it.
But listening to it as an audiobook, older and with more years behind me, it took on a new light. This Is Water isn't just about being a content adult in the modern world, it's about how we view the entire universe and how it treats us. I know so many people today who are just cynical, jaded assholes in their 20s who can't for the life of them get out of the rut of "the world fucked me over, the least I can do is fuck someone else over". Thinking like that is endlessly useless, tragically cyclical, and it is the small individual way that people contribute to this world's infinite supply of apathy, discontent, and lackadaisical attitude towards change. To say things like "I only have fun at my job when I get to make the customer feel as bad as some of them treat me" falls under that thinking. "Look at this asshole that came in today" is absolutely that thinking. But worst of all, the awful mindset that so many fall into that also spits on whatever Wallace was trying to say in that speech on that one hot day at Kenyon College in 2005? That mindset also includes thinking things like "I'm just trying to get by".
I really think we've lost our desire to go beyond "just getting by". The world has fought back against us enough that we have come to accept "good enough". We need to, especially as college graduates, seek to go far beyond contentment and soar into open-mindedness. You don't WIN at growing up, you don't suddenly get good at "adulting". I detest the term because again, it suggests that it's something you can turn on and off. "Look, I'm adulting!" say so many Snapchat images of people sitting at desk jobs or cooking meals. Again, not to sound preachy, but our dedication to learning and gaining knowledge has been put to the side in many cases for this desire to be just right.
I think This Is Water is about accepting how much you have to learn and being open to it. Some think it's about mindfulness or de-centralizing your worldview. And both are good reads! The first is humbling and opens up the world like a grand atlas of places for you to conquer, and the second is one particularly beautiful, necessary (in my opinion) way to exist in the post-college world, where everyone has the same potential as you and, most importantly, you are not important. You are not the only person who hates their job, you aren't the only one who doesn't like parties, you are most certainly not unique for not liking something, trust me. The world is, if anything, full to the brim with opinions, solidarity, and an acknowledgment that your feelings about anything are valid. I think that's worth ruminating on.
But listening to it as an audiobook, older and with more years behind me, it took on a new light. This Is Water isn't just about being a content adult in the modern world, it's about how we view the entire universe and how it treats us. I know so many people today who are just cynical, jaded assholes in their 20s who can't for the life of them get out of the rut of "the world fucked me over, the least I can do is fuck someone else over". Thinking like that is endlessly useless, tragically cyclical, and it is the small individual way that people contribute to this world's infinite supply of apathy, discontent, and lackadaisical attitude towards change. To say things like "I only have fun at my job when I get to make the customer feel as bad as some of them treat me" falls under that thinking. "Look at this asshole that came in today" is absolutely that thinking. But worst of all, the awful mindset that so many fall into that also spits on whatever Wallace was trying to say in that speech on that one hot day at Kenyon College in 2005? That mindset also includes thinking things like "I'm just trying to get by".
I really think we've lost our desire to go beyond "just getting by". The world has fought back against us enough that we have come to accept "good enough". We need to, especially as college graduates, seek to go far beyond contentment and soar into open-mindedness. You don't WIN at growing up, you don't suddenly get good at "adulting". I detest the term because again, it suggests that it's something you can turn on and off. "Look, I'm adulting!" say so many Snapchat images of people sitting at desk jobs or cooking meals. Again, not to sound preachy, but our dedication to learning and gaining knowledge has been put to the side in many cases for this desire to be just right.
I think This Is Water is about accepting how much you have to learn and being open to it. Some think it's about mindfulness or de-centralizing your worldview. And both are good reads! The first is humbling and opens up the world like a grand atlas of places for you to conquer, and the second is one particularly beautiful, necessary (in my opinion) way to exist in the post-college world, where everyone has the same potential as you and, most importantly, you are not important. You are not the only person who hates their job, you aren't the only one who doesn't like parties, you are most certainly not unique for not liking something, trust me. The world is, if anything, full to the brim with opinions, solidarity, and an acknowledgment that your feelings about anything are valid. I think that's worth ruminating on.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
A very nice, very thought provoking commencement speech, but did it really need to be stretched over a 136 pages? Methinks the publishers are just trying to make another buck.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced